The demand for computing services continues to drive development to increase the capabilities of hardware resources to accommodate the demand. However replacing entire sets of hardware resources in order to acquire the latest technological capabilities (e.g., replacing entire servers or racks of servers) can be very costly. Peripheral devices provide a cost effect way to expand the capabilities of fixed computing resources. For instance, without peripheral devices, a server would be limited to the built in capabilities on the server motherboard (e.g., built-in memory, processors, and other computing resources). By installing peripheral devices in expansion interfaces (e.g., PCI or PCIe slots), the capability of the server may be increased. A graphics card, network interface card, additional memory, or device controllers or interfaces for storage, for example, may be added to enhance the functionality of the server. Moreover, newer peripheral devices with greater performance capabilities may be more cost effective to install and replace existing peripheral devices. Thus, peripheral devices are key to satisfying computing service demand by providing cost effective upgrades to existing hardware resources.
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include”, “including”, and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.